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All right. And so going back
to Fortnite now because of our family's holiday, we began a
new chapter in Saul's relationship with David. Things kind of changed
up. David and Goliath, Saul was like,
hey, this is great. You know, I'd love to have this
guy on my team. He was the hero in the battle
against the Philistines. But Saul brought David back and
he entered into his military, and all of a sudden, as they're
going around parading in the different villages or cities
that they would come into, the women would come out singing
and dancing and exalting the glory of the battle, but they're
giving more credit to David than to King Saul and so Saul is moved
with envy a fortnight ago. I think as well we looked at
or maybe three weeks ago We looked at this verse Proverbs 27 for
wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous but who is able to stand before
envy and you remember we went back and we looked at all the
stories in the Bible where Envy crept in and so many times murder
was associated with that. Even Jesus Christ was crucified
because God wanted him to be crucified, but the human cause
was the envy of the false leaders, false religious leaders that
desired to take the life of Christ. So at this point, or sorry, Saul
has tried twice to spear David. He's tried to cast the javelin
at him and pin him to the wall, but David escaped out of his
hand. Now Saul sent David out to fight battles. He wants to
get him out of his sight, you know, and out of his area. But in that, David's gonna succeed
in the battles. David's gonna get more glory
from that even. And so it's kind of not working
out as Saul desires. And so where we're at in the
story, Saul is plotting David's destruction. So he's not giving
up on killing David, he's just gonna change tactics to try to
get it done. So he's gonna set a trap for
David. I grew up in the Midwest, the
United States, we got a lot of animals, we enjoyed this past
week, seeing the many animals as we traveled and whatnot. But
a lot of animals in the United States and we had loads of squirrels,
gray squirrels in our area. I think we had rabbits as well,
and I can't remember as a child what kind of trap we were setting,
what we were trying to catch. Maybe you did the same thing
or have done the same thing, but we took a box, a crate, put it
up on a stick, tied a string to it, put the bait there with
a carrot or maybe a walnut if it was a squirrel. set or trap
you know and you always hope you're going to get something
and as far as I remember we never caught anything with that if
we had caught something I'm not sure exactly what we would have
done with it but that bait is important without that bait you're
not going to get the animal to get into that trap. And so Saul
is going to bait a trap. He looks at David. David's young.
He's unmarried. Saul has daughters. And so he's
going to use his daughters as bait for his trap. Specifically,
first of all, Mirab. And specifically really the idea
of marriage. He's going to try to set that
marriage trap as a trap for David. And so he offers his daughter
in marriage, hoping that David is going to be killed in winning
her. And so verse 17, It says, and Saul said to David, behold,
my elder daughter Mirab, her will I give thee to wife, only
be thou valiant for me and fight the Lord's battles. Now, interesting,
and it's interesting when you study the Bible, you actually
see this idea when somebody is in sin that sometimes they try
to tie God into it. And so you see that here, he
says, you know, David, go out and fight for me and fight the
Lord's battles. But I mean, his desire is that
David is gonna get killed in battle, is the word of God's
gonna tell us. For Saul said, let not mine hand be upon him,
but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him. Let him get killed
by the Philistines. You know, the last wedding that
I think all of us were at were Jamie and Rebecca's wedding.
Were you there, Boyd? I thought so, yeah, and Tommy
would have been there as well. And so Jamie and Rebecca's wedding,
but you go to a wedding and I had an interesting view this time
doing the wedding, my first wedding that I've ever done. The only
wedding that I've ever done is watching the bride come down
the aisle. Of course, she's got her father
there as well. And as you're watching that take
place, it wouldn't be unusual to see a tear going down that
father's cheek. And as you see that, it might
be a tear of joy thinking that he's no longer financially responsible
for this young lady as soon as he passes her hand off to this
other man. Maybe that's it, but I think
more likely it's bittersweet. This is a precious relationship.
He's been responsible for this girl. Now she's gonna be responsible
to another man. Is the guy good enough? Is he
gonna take care of her? There's a lot of interest in
the well-being of that daughter. You know, a godly father is loving
and protective of his daughters. Now you look at Saul and you
think, wow, he doesn't care. He doesn't care about Mureb.
He doesn't care about, as we're gonna see, Michael. All he cares
about is his own selfish interests, what he desires to take place. And obviously, if David was killed,
that's absolutely contrary to the happiness of his daughter,
if she actually cares at all about her husband or her future
husband. And so he's presenting this idea
to David. He wants David to take the bait,
but verse 18, David said unto Saul, who am I and what is my
life or my father's family in Israel that I should be son-in-law
to the king? Okay, David was what Saul used
to be and that is little in his own eyes. And that's what Samuel
said to Saul when Saul sinned against God and did offer the
sacrifices that he shouldn't have offered, didn't fully fulfill
the will of God in killing those that God intended to be killed. He's rebuked by Samuel and Samuel
says in 1 Samuel 15 verse 17, when thou was little in thine
own sight, was thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel?
And the Lord anointed the king over Israel." So God couldn't
use Saul anymore because Saul was very proud. And we've talked
about Saul never repented, but David, David is humble. Obviously, is David a great man? He's musical, you know, he's
faithful. He's chosen by God, he's anointed
by God to be the next king. I mean, he's gone out to battle
against an adversary that was impossible to beat. He's come
back victorious. There's a lot of people championing
David and yet David maintains humility and is humble and God
can use David. I'm reminded and I want to remind
us this morning that those whom God uses are humble. That somebody of humility, somebody
that is little in their own sight. And if I could just define humility
as dependence upon God, I think it's not a bad definition. It's
a sense of, you know what? I am what I am by the grace of
God. Anything that I have has been given to me by God. I can't
exercise it except as God enables me to exercise it. So it's a
continual recognition that I am what I am by the grace of God.
Where pride is I am what I am, you know, I I have arrived type
idea But God uses those that understand their dependence upon
him 1 Peter 5 5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto
the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be
clothed with humility for God resists at the proud, but give
it grace unto the humble. If you want to be somebody that
God is like this with, be somebody that is proud. If you want to
be somebody that receives from God what is necessary, be somebody
that is humble, that God gives grace unto the humble. And Psalm
138 verse six, though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect
unto the lowly, but the proud he knoweth afar off. God is so
far above, and yet the ones that God cares about are not the ones
lifting themselves up, but the ones that are lowly in their
own eyes, God embraces that, God cares about that. Humble
and contrite heart, God will not despise. but the proud he
knoweth afar off. Just meaning that he distances
himself, he separates himself from those who are pride, because
really pride separates itself from God. And so here Saul is
trying to get David into a trap and David, his humility really
is gonna protect him quite a bit through this whole situation.
But Saul was insincere in his offer, okay? So he gives this
offer to David, he's insincere about it because instead he gives
his daughter to another man. Verse 19, it came to pass at
the time when Merab Saul's daughter should have been given to David,
that she was given unto Adriel the Meholathite to wife. Okay, so you think about that.
I mean, if we could just read that verse and think big deal,
but it is, I think, a very big deal what David is facing as
he goes through a situation like that. Why? Because David was
lied to. Saul was not a man of his word.
He was not a man of truth. And in that, Saul was unlike
God, right? Saul was unlike the very nature
and character of God, which is truth. Numbers 23, 19 says, God
is not a man that he should lie. neither the son of man that he
should repent hath he said and shall he not do it hath he spoken
and shall he not make it good okay if god says that he's going
to do something can you bank on it absolutely right That is
the source of great strength to us. Even today in the message
I'm gonna preach this morning, it has a lot to do with that
idea that God is a God of his word. What God says, God does. But there's a lot of people that
aren't like that. There's a lot of people that say something
and they don't mean it. They don't care to keep their
word. I'll give you a personal example.
I have a man that has, in this past year, offered to take me
fishing, told me he's gonna take me fishing, said, we are going
to go fishing on a Friday, all right, on a Friday. I love to
fish, I would like to go fishing. I'll tell you this, I don't get
my hopes up anymore because I've heard him say it several times
and I keep waiting for that phone call, that email, and maybe I
could give him every excuse, whatever, but he doesn't really
mean what he's saying about that, I don't think. And I just recently
said to my family, if he says he's gonna take me fishing in
the future, I may just go, that's okay, that's okay, because I
don't wanna get My hope's up about that. Proverbs 25, 19 says,
confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a
broken tooth and a foot out of joint. I don't have to go fishing. But if it's something that I
need, something that's really, truly important, the last thing
you want is to be depending on somebody to get that done that
is not going to get it done. I mean, the last thing you want
is somebody that says, I will, and they don't. You'd rather
have somebody that says, I don't, but they will, right? I mean,
that's what the Lord said, isn't it? The Pharisees said that they
will, but they don't get saved, right? They want to follow God,
but they don't follow God. where somebody that is a sinner
recognizes, they've said to God, I won't, I won't, but then they
yield to God, they get right with God, and then they do for
God, that is a good thing. But there's a lot of people who
say they will, but they don't. And so, if we don't remember
our promises, that we've given, we should really start writing
them down, okay? If that's our excuse, like, oh, I didn't remember
saying that I would do that. I didn't remember saying that
I would fulfill that responsibility. If that's us, we ought to write
it down. If we've said something, if we made a statement of promise,
I'll do this, we write it down. Why? Because we ought to be somebody
of our word. I don't know if this is good
or bad, but when I was in high school, I read a lot, and I read
a lot of Louis L'Amour. And one thing about the West,
I mean, your word is your bond. And if you say, if somebody calls
you a liar, you shoot it out because your ability to barter
and trade and buy and sell is based on your word. If your word
is of no value, you are of no value. All right? And so, good
or bad. One of the things that got in
my mind from that is that you be somebody of your word. I guess
that's a good thing. It's a great thing if in our
heart we think, you know, I'm going to be that. I'm going to
be somebody. If I say it, I'm going to get
it done. And if you don't care to do that,
The Bible says that you don't like the person and you actually
hate the person that you're lying to. Proverbs 26, 28 says, If
I afflict somebody by promising something that's not true, that's
a lie. then I hate them because that
lie affects them, all right? And so if I ought to be very
careful, I'd be somebody of my word. Now, if I promised my kids
something, I need to fulfill that. I'll just say that as a
parent, we don't have a big group here today and a lot of them
are my kids, you know? But if I see something as a dad,
I want to be able to fulfill that. And I hope that I am somebody
that does that. I hope I am. Because the last
thing I want to do is give an opportunity to my kids to be
better and to look at that and say, you know, I was lied to.
That this was what was said. It never happened. And so that
would not be a good thing. And so as we think about this,
David is lied to by his future father-in-law. Okay, we know
the story coming up. He's lied to by him. He could
have been bitter about it. It could have really bothered
him because this was something that was very important that
he was lied about too. Now, have you ever been promised
something that did not come true? And maybe we can think about
that in our life. And then you ask the question,
well, did it hurt? Well, very likely it did. If it was anything
of value that you really were interested in, there was probably
hurt associated with that. You know, I recently reflected
on something that happened to me over 15 years ago, and I was
really surprised about how raw it felt. It was an activity that
I enjoy very much, and I had a date planned with somebody
to go and do this activity, and unbeknownst to me, something
happened, and it wasn't anything that I really thought that much
about, and I didn't feel like I had offended anybody or caused
any problems or anything like that, but there was an offense
that was there, and this person just decided not to show up. The activity, I got up very early,
I got all ready, I'm ready to go, and that person never came. And I'll tell you this, 15 years
on, I can think back about that and I think, you know, that hurts.
They never talked about it. Never came and just kind of cleared
the air or said anything. I just kind of find out in a
little backwards sort of way kind of what happened and no
communication or anything about that. That hurts, right? hurts
to be lied to. Somebody says something and it
doesn't happen. So I say that to say David's
now in a situation like that. David has been promised this
daughter and then Saul just turns around and allows her to marry
somebody else. You know, it's a bit like someone
left at the altar. She was to be his bride. You
know, and maybe others knew about it. There could have been a pride
associated with it. That's going to be his bride.
And she's turned around and she's given to this other guy. And
again, the Bible doesn't go into a lot of the details surrounding
this, but you can imagine that others might've been aware that
David had been promised Mirab's hand. So David could have been
embittered by this. And I think maybe Saul was hoping
he would be. Saul's hoping that David gets upset. David does
something dumb and tries to go against the king and that Saul
can justly take care of David. And I point this out because
Satan is sly and Satan is a deceiver and Satan is gonna try to attack
us in ways like, we'd never think like, oh, David and Mirab, this
is a big deal or not like David and Goliath. David and Goliath
is obvious. There's a, I mean, a battle that's taking place
there. You know he's there. But this is kind of a sideways
attack that's coming in at David. Yet the Bible says, In Psalm
119 verse 165, great peace have they which love thy law and nothing
shall offend them. Okay, offend in the Bible doesn't
mean that bothers me. It means that is a stumbling
block. All right, it's a trip up into
sin. Nothing shall offend them. Nothing shall be that stumbling
block that will cause them to transgress against God. Great
peace have they which love thy law. You know, David could look
at this situation and say, you know what? King Saul's not faithful,
but God is. Saul doesn't keep his word, but
God does. We know this from David's life.
David has faith, he has trust, he has dependence upon God. So
he can look at it and say, wait, wait, wait. There's plenty of
people that'll tell you, I am this way because this happened
to me, circumstances. Because this is my environment.
Well, that's not a biblical view about life. A biblical view is
no matter what my circumstances, no matter what my environment,
I can have all the grace necessary in this situation to succeed
by the grace of God. So David was a little bit able
to say kind of the saying, let bygones be bygones, yeah? It's
water under the bridge. It's a little late to get upset.
She's married. There's nothing you can do about it. And again,
we're not given a lot of information about this, but David is able
just to rest in God and say, God, you're faithful. And so
if there's anything like that in our life, we think, well,
there's a promise that's unfulfilled or something that should have
happened that didn't happen. And I'm a victim of my circumstances. We need to stop and to do what
David obviously did. And that is continue. to trust
in God, not take Satan's bait because Satan would love for
us to get bitter about somebody else letting us down or something
like that. And then again here, Saul sets the same trap again
for David, but this time he's gonna put a high bar, okay? He's
gonna set that trap, he's gonna put the bar way up there hoping
that David's gonna be killed. And so verse 20, Michael, Saul's
daughter loved David and they told Saul and the thing pleased
them and Saul said, I will give him her that she may be a snare
to him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.
Wherefore Saul said to David, thou shalt this day be my son-in-law
in one of the twain, okay? And that phrase, in one of the
twain, means the second time. All right, it's basically the
kind of idea. It's okay, Mereb didn't work out, but here's another
idea. And so Saul has more bait with
which to set a trap. The trap is now gonna be set
with his other daughter, Michael. And so he broke his first promise,
and now he has a second offer. You know, did we read the text
there, verse 20 and 21? Yes. Okay. It says, verse 20,
Michael, Saul's daughter loved David and they told Saul and
the thing, what? Pleased him. Is he excited? Like,
oh, I'm so glad that my daughter loves David. Why is he excited? Yes. All right. Here, opportunity
number two comes knocking. I can take David out again with
the same trap. And so, you know, David, Does
David think that Saul is truly his friend? I mean, a man that
threw a spear at you twice and then lies to you about his, I
mean, I think in David's heart, there's gotta be some caution,
all right, with Saul. And again, we studied in Proverbs
27, and Proverbs is written by Solomon, most of it is. And when
you get to chapter 27, I wonder at times, what stories in the
mind of Solomon as he thinks about the proverb that he's writing
because so many have to do with his dad in the situation. So
here's another one, Proverbs 27 verse six. Faithful are the
wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Saul's
offering kisses to David. I want you to be my son-in-law,
but David in his heart has to know this man is not for me. So if he's speaking nicely to
me, then I need to be aware. It's like Judas kissing Christ.
Saul's just seeking the destruction of David. So David acknowledged
the king's offer again with humility. Verse 23, and Saul's servant
spake those words in the ears of David, and David said, Again, David looks at himself
and says, man, I don't have anything to give to the king for his daughter. I've shared before about my wife
and I getting married while we were students, and I was making
$35 a week. I think I got $70 every two weeks,
and you might think, well, man, when did you live? going back
60 years or something. But I got my tuition free. I
got my housing free. I was a graduate assistant at
Bob Jones. I was working on my master's
degree. And so there was a lot of value in that. But when we
got married, I lost my housing because I was going to have to
pay dorm rates for my wife. It was actually cheaper than
paying dorm rates to pay for our own housing off campus, and
God provided a great little farmhouse that we stayed in when we first
got married. I've said before, but I think it was $325 or $350
a month that we paid in rent, but every time I cut the grass,
I either got $50 off or $75. And I like to say we had the
shortest grassing career because I was cutting it all the time.
I didn't have a lot to offer my wife when we got married.
I've shared before about the things, the furniture, the lack
of furniture that we had. We had everything that we needed,
but not more than we needed. My brother gave us our first
car, an old Ford Temple, I think 1998 Ford Temple, or older than
that, 1988 maybe. And that was our first vehicle
that we had. And I'm just thankful that my
wife wasn't a queen or a princess. I'm glad that she didn't expect
to live the high life. But this is a king's daughter
that Saul's speaking about. So I get sympathized with David.
David just goes, I'm a lowly shepherd. You know, I'm just
kind of getting the military salary and things right now.
I don't really have anything to offer to the king. And Saul
loves that because Saul's going to exploit that. So Saul sees
an opportunity to exploit David's humble position. Verse 24, It
says, and the servants of Saul told him, saying, on this manner
spake David. And Saul said, thus shall you
speak to David. The king desireth not any dowry, but a hundred
foreskins of the Philistines to be avenged at the king's enemies.
But Saul fought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. Okay, circumcision was a sign
of the covenant from the time of Abraham. Circumcision is what
an eight day old male child had surgically removed. And so the
Philistines had this, but Israelites did not. And so there's going
to be a testimony to who David killed if he brings this offering
as it were to Saul that Saul is asking for. And so verse 26,
and when his servants told David these words, it pleased David
well. to be the king's son-in-law, and the days were not expired. Now, when it says the days were
not expired, it's going back to the promise about Mirab, okay?
There were so many days that David had to go out and do battle
against the Philistines, and then Saul would give Mirab to
David. Well, he violated that, but there
was still some time left in the original agreement, and he says,
how about this? It'll be Michael instead, and
100 Philistines killed, that'll be the situation. And so there's
still some time left to do that. And just to think about this
as well, David is anointed to be what? King, so doesn't it
make sense, in David's mind as he thinks about this, doesn't
it make sense to marry a king's daughter? If you're gonna enter
into that position, it really does make a lot of sense. This
is going to even more solidify the situation as far as your
ability to be the future king. He was not a son of the king,
but he was a son-in-law, or would become a son-in-law of the king.
And so verse 27, wherefore David arose and went, and he and his
men, and slew of the Philistines 200 men. Okay, wait a second.
How many did Saul say to kill? 100, David kills 200. And David brought their foreskins,
and they gave them a full tale to the king that he might be
the king's son-in-law. And Saul gave him Michael, his
daughter, to wife. You know, I read that and I think,
why did David kill 200? Just to prove that he could? Just
to go that, you know, if somebody says go a mile, you go two miles,
or what's going on there? And I don't know this, but I
wonder if it's not that David thought, you know, this guy is
gonna, I'm gonna come back with 100, he's gonna say, wait, wait,
wait, I said 200. You know, or something like that. I mean,
he keeps moving the goalposts. And so David just goes, I'm going
all the way here. And Saul can't back out of it.
Saul's got to fulfill his word, it seems. And so he gives him
Michael as his wife. Now, as we look at this story,
was it easy for David, the situation that he found himself in? But
we don't see him complaining. By the way, when he defeated
Goliath, what was he promised? The daughter of the king. I mean,
David could have been bitter. David could have gone, oh, he
keeps moving the goalpost. And it's not fair, but we don't
see that in David. We don't see David acting foolishly
in the opportunities that are before him. He doesn't respond
foolishly. He just responds with wisdom
every single time. He endures hardness as a good
soldier for God. So Saul's doing his best to destroy
David. It's just getting better and
better for David. David had a God-blessed life
and a loving wife. It says in verse 28, and Saul
saw and knew that the Lord was with David and that Michael,
Saul's daughter, loved him. And Saul was yet the more afraid
of David, and Saul became David's enemy continually, continually. Two things in Saul's life, envy
and fear. It's destroying Saul. You know,
and you think about that and think, man, did Saul have to
have a miserable life? And he does have a miserable
life. You just, I mean, from this point on, his life is just,
what we see of it is fear, anxiousness, envy, not a fun situation. And
you think, what could he have done? Well, he could have done
this, repent, believe, and obey. And if you remember those words,
repent, believe, and obey, repentance, faith, and obedience are the
three things that are really necessary for us to keep a close
walk with God. If sin comes into our life, repent,
believe, obey. Saul never does that. He never
gets right with God. We see him remorseful. We see him looking
at his life thinking, ah, you know, it's miserable and he's
complaining, but we never see him really get right with God.
But David had a God-blessed life and a loving wife. And then David's
name became legend in the Israeli military. Verse 30, it says,
So the Philistines went out to battle, David went out, and he
behaved himself wisely. And it says, so that his name
was much set by. I mean, people knew the name of David. Oh, have you
heard about David? President Zelensky of Ukraine
has shown himself to be a mighty commander in time of war for
his people. I don't think he's a saved man
or anything. I don't know anything about that
aspect of it, but he's shown incredible courage. And he has
led with forcefulness. And even, I think almost two
weeks ago, or a week and a half ago, Time Magazine came out with
Zelensky on the front cover and basically credited him with his
bravery and his courage in the face of danger, just bringing
the West together and uniting the West as never before. His
name is much set by. Most people nowadays, they didn't
know Zelensky before, but most people nowadays know the name
Zelensky. That's the way David was. David
was relatively obscure, then God's bring him to prominence,
bring him to greater prominence. No matter what Saul does, Saul's
throwing everything at him, but God is blessing. You know, God
could do that in our life too. We just need to look at the things
that we face, not blame our circumstances, not get bitter, just keep our
eyes on God. Say, I'm just going to trust God, and I'm going to
go forward, I'm going to please God. And David did that, and
God honored that, and God blessed David. All right, let's pray.
Father, may the Spirit of God just bring these truths to our
heart today. We could claim that we're a victim
of our circumstances and be bitter. Or Father, we could be somebody
that, you know, rather than getting bitter, we just get better. We
just trust God more. We just look up more. There's
a lot of times people are gonna fail us. They're gonna say something.
It's not gonna happen. It's not gonna be what they said.
I pray, Father, help us to be men of our word if we say it
father i pray that we would fulfill it and father i pray that the
spirit of god would prosper us just like he prospered david
guard us from king sauls guard us from satan's attacks he's
very subtle in the way he attacks god give us grace to do battle
and to be strong it's in christ and we pray amen
Lesson 11, Life of David
Series The Life of David
Saul seeks to destroy David by setting a snare.
| Sermon ID | 313221440306496 |
| Duration | 31:31 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday School |
| Bible Text | 1 Samuel 18:17-30 |
| Language | English |
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